What was the French response?

Ms Hidalgo stressed the inclusivity and energy of Paris, tweeting a picture of her launching a tourism campaign at the Eiffel Tower.

Image copyrightAnne/HidalgoTwitter

The remarks came as France celebrated the 25th anniversary of the theme park Disneyland Paris.

The Paris mayor also challenged the suggestion that tourist numbers from the US were in decline, saying reservations were up 30% in 2017.

Mr Hollande, meanwhile, said Mr Trump’s remarks were no way to behave towards an ally.

“It is never good to show the slightest mistrust towards a friendly country,” he said.

“That is not what I would do towards a friendly country and I would ask the American president not to do it to France.”

In a reference to France’s tighter gun control laws, Mr Hollande said: “There are no weapons circulating here. There are no people who take weapons to shoot into the crowd simply for the satisfaction of causing drama and tragedy.”

So are tourists really deserting the City of Lights?

According to figures published by the Paris Office of Tourism (in French), 7,356,945 foreign tourists arrived at hotels in the city of Paris between January and November 2016, 11.9% fewer than in the same period the previous year.

Among American tourists the decline was only slighter smaller – there were 1,387,191 hotel arrivals, down 9.9%.

In the same period there was a slight rise in the number of tourists from other parts of France, of 0.3% to almost six million.

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Image caption
France has been under a state of emergency since the November 2015 attacks

The 2015 figures mostly cover the period before the 13 November Paris attacks which shocked the country and left 130 people dead and hundreds wounded.

No figures were given for tourists staying in non-hotel accommodation such as Airbnb.

How does it compare with New York?

According to the New York mayor’s office, the city welcomed 60.3 million visitors in 2016, up by 1.8 million on 2015.

This was the “seventh consecutive year of travel and tourism growth for the city”, the statement said.

Of these, 47.6 million came from within the US and 12.65 million from abroad. Both figures were all-time highs, the mayor’s office added.